Pathway to Sydara: Guardian of the Gate
Prologue

The Tale of Creation

-a short summary of the Bookof Sarben

In the beginning, the godsruled the universe, creating life and beauty with a wave of their hands. Themaster of the gods was Valsla, and he was the mightiest and most powerful ofthe gods. He gave life and power to the other gods and has been regarded as theFather of the Gods in many other tales and legends.

As the gods lived theirimmortal lives, they began to experiment with their power by creating whatevertheir divine minds could think of. Eventually, their divine power created theworld and the beasts that live on it. From the horses that majestically gallopacross the fields to the birds that fly through the vast sky to the fish thatswim the deep oceans, the gods created it all. They also created the mortalsand gave them long life, letting them live up to three hundred years old atmost.

And so the gods appointeda mighty god as overseer of the new world. This god was Ziavaxe. And with acouncil of lesser gods, Ziavaxe ruled the world and watched over itsinhabitants.

But,despite the excellent work the gods had done, the world still lived inDarkness. The mortals of the world lived in the shadows, calling themselvesZiaxes, Men of Darkness, after Ziavaxe.

Fora few generations of men, the Ziaxes lived in the Darkness. They adapted to theworld, learning ways to replace food and shelter, developing red eyes that couldsee through even the darkest shadow. Some of the Ziaxes even learned how tocontrol the Darkness and created what mortals would later call dark magic.

Thoughall had seemed peaceful, something happened by the end of the first millenniumthat changed the way the Ziaxes lived forever. A younger god named Sarbencreated Light. He showed his creation to the other gods and they spoke unto himsaying, "Go unto the mortal world, Great Sarben, and show the mortals thymiracle!"

Andthus Sarben gave the Light and became the Great God of Light and ruled the worldwith a council of lesser gods alongside Ziavaxe. Sarben created a great sphereof Light in the heavens and called it the "sun." He also made asphere that did not shine as brightly as the sun called the "moon” and hundredsupon thousands of smaller stars that would shine away the Darkness, so themortals would never be swallowed by the Darkness ever again.

ButZiavaxe was outraged to have his power over the world shared by such a youngergod. So the two gods held council with each other and decided to have twoseparate peoples: one that worshipped the Light and one that worshipped theDarkness. The Men of Light were called Sarbenians while the Men of Darknessstayed with the same name of Ziaxes. They also divided the times of each daycalling the beginning of the day when the sun shined brightest the"morning" while the later part of the day when Darkness was at itsgreatest the "night."

TheSarbenians flourished on the Islands of the East calling their land Sarbenia. Amongthem were mortals of great pureness that could control the Light just as Ziaxescould control their Darkness. These mortals were called Sargens; they wereknown as the blessed mortals of Sarben. The Sargens started the Sarbenian lineof royalty, for Sarben had blessed them with the pureness of true kings.

Inthe south, across the Great Channel, the Ziaxes were growing in their land theycalled Vilaria. The Vilarians expanded from their capital city Eyran.

Asthe years went by, Sarbenia grew stronger and vaster. The kingdom's capital wasNizrock, a glorious city on the Islands of the East. It was King Trian theGreat who led a great expansion from the Eastern Islands to the continent inthe west. The kingdom expanded north, west, and south reaching as far aspossible with only the Great Channel in the south and the land of the godlesspeople, the Lysarians, in the west hindering its growth.

Asthe third millennium drew closer to an end, the Sarbenian and Vilarian kingdomsmade contact across the Great Channel and thus their rivalry began. Battleserupted from the Sarbenians and the Vilarians. These battles erupted fromrandom periods of time for hundreds of years.

Thenat the beginning of the fourth millennium, King Vacaldon the Ruthless ofVilaria attacked South Sarbenia; this led to the Southern War. After the Ziaxeswon the war and conquered much of South Sarbenia, the pure Sargens felt thattheir land was becoming tainted with the enemy's Darkness. And so, a largequantity of the Sargens took a great ship over the Eastern Sea to replace newuntouched lands to live on. The only Sargens that stayed behind were the onesof the royal line who stayed to continue their rule over Sarbenia.

GreatSarben, the God of Light, was disgusted at the tainting of his land and theloss of his blessed Sargens. So he came unto the world and blessed one of hismost loyal priests with the ability to live in both the Darkness and the Light.The priest's name was Lexar, and he used the ability to help keep balancebetween the two kingdoms of Sarbenia and Vilaria. He became known as theBalancer of Light and Darkness, the Nizain.

WhenLexar grew old, his power was blessed onto his only child. And so the Power ofthe Nizain passed onto every new generation.

Andall was peaceful until the beginning of the sixth millennium when theunexpected happened. The Dark King Rauchton of Vilaria led a great naval attackagainst Nizrock, the capital of Sarbenia. A four year siege took place, andNizrock eventually fell.

Afterthe city fell, the kingdom of Sarbenia held a great council. Zar, King ofSarbenia at that time, decided to divide the vast kingdom in hope to betterprotect its massive land from further invasions. He divided the kingdom betweenhimself and his two sons. Zar ruled over the northern part of Sarbenia andcalled it Zaria. His son, Larlo, inherited the middle part of the kingdom andnamed it Sargenia for he was pure with Sargen blood. And finally, Zar's secondson, Ravil, was given the southern part of Sarbenia that had survived theSouthern War and named it Ravilla.

Andso, throughout the years, the followers of Sarben, the Great God of Light, knewthey would always be safe from the harm of the god Ziavaxe and his evil shadowsas long as they worshipped their Great God and prayed for his divineprotection.